Submission + - NVDA urgently needs your help.
proudhawk writes: "the following letter was received in my mailbox this morning. Since I am blind and use this screen reader in windows, I feel it appropriate to spread the news as widely as possible.
letter:
Dear nvda users,
Sorry for the long email, please bare with us to the end.
The time has come to show your appreciation and your determination for
NVDA development to continue.
Due to the economic downturn NV Access has received less grants than
what we would have hoped for.
We all have a duty and an obligation to request from the organizations
working for the blind such as the RNIB, UK or AFB/NFB, USA or the
appropriate blind organization in your country, to tell them that NVDA
has been and continues to be a useful and valuable tool to provide
accessibility for all of us and that they should promote and sponsor the
excellent work that is being done.
Despite all the politics and the slow movement within organizations, we
the real NVDA users are able to keep NVDA development going
if each one of us took their responsibility seriously.
This is without having to wait for organizations or companies to give
grants to NV Access.
Due to many advantages, benefits and unique features of NVDA, the number
of NVDA users are growing but sadly the personal donations are not
matching this increase and are often not regular.
What we want to say clearly is that any regular donation large or small,
will keep Jamie and Michael in their full time employment working for NVDA.
What we have to remember is that they are two blind individuals like you
and me, but are gifted with rare skills that many of us could benefit from.
We should work hard not to put them in a situation where they have to
choose between doing something that they love and believing in (improving
NVDA), and having to provide the necessities for their families and
children.
The current funding is able to keep both of them employed until
september this year, and if the donations haven't increased by then
they may have to look for alternative employment.
Even if one of them leaves and the other continues the work load will
be a lot harder, and progress will be much slower.
This will directly impact on us because we will have to wait for much
longer before tickets can be solved, which will cause us a lot of
frustration and anguish. This is not what we have been accustomed to in
the last few years, we often see regular releases and each version is
superior to the previous one.
We all need to understand that, what is required is for each one of us
to donate according to our circumstances, may it be as little as 5 or 10
dollars a month, this will be enough to keep the project going.
We Thank those of you who already donate on a regular basis.
Put this in context, we easily spend 5 dollars on a coffee
or 10/20 dollars on a meal when we eat out, surely NVDA deserves this
token amount?
Many people do charity events, such as running a marathon, doing a
tandem ride, or baking and selling cakes in their community to raise
money for cancer research or any other worth while charity, we can all
do the same but for NV Access which is also a charity.
Please don't lose this opportunity to support NVDA, because if we fail
to set up regular donations, in a few months time we will all have to
start paying for expensive screenreaders because NVDA would not have
been developed and updated to match our latest needs.
We are writing this email as individuals that strongly believe in open
source, and as volunteer contributors to NVDA. We understand that it is
hard for Jamie and Michael to keep sending emails asking for donations
because it feels bad to keep asking, but we the users should act before
we reach the point of no return.
Please repost/translate or anything that you feel appropriate, and
please don't forget to raise donations.
Link for donations:
http://www.nvaccess.org/wiki/Donate"
letter:
Dear nvda users,
Sorry for the long email, please bare with us to the end.
The time has come to show your appreciation and your determination for
NVDA development to continue.
Due to the economic downturn NV Access has received less grants than
what we would have hoped for.
We all have a duty and an obligation to request from the organizations
working for the blind such as the RNIB, UK or AFB/NFB, USA or the
appropriate blind organization in your country, to tell them that NVDA
has been and continues to be a useful and valuable tool to provide
accessibility for all of us and that they should promote and sponsor the
excellent work that is being done.
Despite all the politics and the slow movement within organizations, we
the real NVDA users are able to keep NVDA development going
if each one of us took their responsibility seriously.
This is without having to wait for organizations or companies to give
grants to NV Access.
Due to many advantages, benefits and unique features of NVDA, the number
of NVDA users are growing but sadly the personal donations are not
matching this increase and are often not regular.
What we want to say clearly is that any regular donation large or small,
will keep Jamie and Michael in their full time employment working for NVDA.
What we have to remember is that they are two blind individuals like you
and me, but are gifted with rare skills that many of us could benefit from.
We should work hard not to put them in a situation where they have to
choose between doing something that they love and believing in (improving
NVDA), and having to provide the necessities for their families and
children.
The current funding is able to keep both of them employed until
september this year, and if the donations haven't increased by then
they may have to look for alternative employment.
Even if one of them leaves and the other continues the work load will
be a lot harder, and progress will be much slower.
This will directly impact on us because we will have to wait for much
longer before tickets can be solved, which will cause us a lot of
frustration and anguish. This is not what we have been accustomed to in
the last few years, we often see regular releases and each version is
superior to the previous one.
We all need to understand that, what is required is for each one of us
to donate according to our circumstances, may it be as little as 5 or 10
dollars a month, this will be enough to keep the project going.
We Thank those of you who already donate on a regular basis.
Put this in context, we easily spend 5 dollars on a coffee
or 10/20 dollars on a meal when we eat out, surely NVDA deserves this
token amount?
Many people do charity events, such as running a marathon, doing a
tandem ride, or baking and selling cakes in their community to raise
money for cancer research or any other worth while charity, we can all
do the same but for NV Access which is also a charity.
Please don't lose this opportunity to support NVDA, because if we fail
to set up regular donations, in a few months time we will all have to
start paying for expensive screenreaders because NVDA would not have
been developed and updated to match our latest needs.
We are writing this email as individuals that strongly believe in open
source, and as volunteer contributors to NVDA. We understand that it is
hard for Jamie and Michael to keep sending emails asking for donations
because it feels bad to keep asking, but we the users should act before
we reach the point of no return.
Please repost/translate or anything that you feel appropriate, and
please don't forget to raise donations.
Link for donations:
http://www.nvaccess.org/wiki/Donate"
